November will mark the 16-year mark since my diagnosis with prostate cancer, and I’ve been riding that roller coaster ever since. Despite a radical prostatectomy (surgery) and salvage radiation therapy with concurrent androgen deprivation (hormone) therapy, it’s hanging on and continues to do its thing.

When I was diagnosed, I was completely oblivious to anything about prostate cancer, and I scrambled to get as smart as I could as quickly as I could so that I could make informed, researched treatment decisions.

The best time to learn about prostate cancer is before you are diagnosed with prostate cancer. That’s where Prostate Cancer Awareness Month comes into play.

Prostate Cancer Facts

• Prostate cancer often has no symptoms (I was asymptomatic).
• 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.
• 1 in 6 black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.
• In 2025, there were 313,780 cases, or one every two minutes.
• There were 35,770 deaths, or one death every 15 minutes in 2025.
• A simple prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test can give an early warning to the possible presence of prostate cancer.

You can learn more at these great organizations:

• Prostate Cancer Foundation
• ZERO Prostate Cancer
• Prostate Cancer Research Institute
• American Cancer Society

You don’t have to become a prostate cancer scholar, but it would be worth an hour or so to learn about the disease, how it progresses, and the various treatment options that are available. With luck, you’ll never have to put that education to use but, if you do, you’ll have a head start.

Be well!